Coring tube cleaner



April 14, 1959 A. D. BULL 2,881,933

' CORING TUBE CLEANER Original Filed Aug. 7. 1953 INVENTOR ALMOND D. BULL lw. ATTORNEY United btates Patnt CORING TUBE CLEANER Almond D. Bull, Chickasha, Okla.

Original application August 7, 1953, Serial No. 373,072. and this application July 2, 1957, Serial No.

1 Claim. (Cl. 214310) (Granted under Title 35, U. S. Code (1952), sec. 266) A non-exclusive, irrevocable, royalty-free license in the invention herein described, throughout the world for all purposes of the United States Government, with the power to grant sublicenses for such purposes, is hereby granted to the Government of the United States of America.

This application is a division of Ser. No. 373,072, filed August 7, 1953.

The present invention relates to a device for removing compacted soil from the tip of a coring tube such as may be used in conjunction with the hydraulic soil sampler disclosed in Ser. No. 373,072, or with the electrically operated soil sampler disclosed in Patent Number 2,701,121, of which the said Ser. No. 373,072 is a continuation-in-part.

In the course of the operation of the machines of Patent No. 2,701,121 or of Ser. No. 373,072 to obtain soil profile samples it sometimes occurs that the samples are so dense that the coring tubes cannot readily be emptied or cleaned by merely tapping them.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a device for removing the compacted soil from the sampling tube in a safe manner without damaging the accurately machined cutting edge of the coring tip.

This device is described below, reference being made to the sole figure of the accompanying drawing:

The aforementioned figure is an elevation, partly in cross-section, of a preferred form of the cleaning device.

Since the coring tube cleaner will usually be used in conjunction with the apparatus disclosed in the aforementioned application and patent it is preferably mounted on the base 1 of the apparatus which may be the bed or floor of the vehicle in which the apparatus is carried. Obviously, the cleaning device may be mounted on any other suitable support.

The cleaner comprises a base 165 to which is welded a plate 66 which extends radially from a tubular portion 67 at one end thereof. This tubular portion is integral with plate 66. A pin 68 is secured to base 1 of the apparatus and passes through tubular portion 67 serving as a pivot for rotating the coring tube cleaner.

The cleaner further comprises a cylindrical member 70 which is also integral with plate 66 and is provided with an internal taper flaring outwardly and upwardly to guide the coring tube 32 over plunger 71 mounted in base concentrically within cylindrical member 70. The minimum inside diameter of this cylindrical member 70 is slightly larger than the maximum external diameter of the tip of the coring tube. A section of the lower side wall of the cylindrical member is completely cut away to permit passage of the waste soil after the latter has been forced out of the tip by plunger 71. The diameter of plunger 71 is such as to enable it to fit easily inside the coring tip. A brass bumper washer 72 is provided about the lower portion of plunger 71 and secured by any suitable means (not shown) to base 165. Its purpose is to prevent damage to the cutting edge 73 of the coring tip.

To use the device for cleaning a coring tube all that is necessary is to lower the coring tube 32 by hand over plunger 71. However, if the soil or clay in the tube is so tightly packed or wedged that it is not possible to remove it by a hand operation, the coring tube is coupled to the driving head of the apparatus (not shown), as fully described in the aforementioned application and patent, the tip cleaner (which is mounted on base 1 at an appropriate distance from the driving head) is pivoted about pin 68 until it is directly beneath the coring tube, and the latter is forced down over the cleaning plug 71 by means of the hydraulic or electrical mechanism of the apparatus. This will clear the coring tip, no matter how tightly wedged the soil may be.

I claim:

A device for removing soil from an earth coring tube comprising a base, an anchor pin rigidly mounted on said base, a tubular portion rotatably mounted on said anchor pin, a plate integral with said tubular portion and extending radially therefrom, a cylindrical member mounted on said plate in substantially axial parallelism with said tubular portion, said cylindrical mmeber being provided with an upwardly outflaring bore and having a section of a side thereof completely removed, a plunger concentrically mounted within said cylinder, said plunger having a base, and soft bumper means adjacent the base of said plunger, whereby said device may be pivoted beneath a coring tube to be cleaned and said coring tube guided onto said plunger, and damage to the cutting edge of said coring tube prevented.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 

